2/3D rendering cards

[Warren Block]

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012, joaoBR wrote:

>>> well all ati cards are PCIe and are supported, question is what
>>> capabilities they have with FreeBSD and new xorg-serevr
>>
>> UMS is used for cards up to the 4000 series, but the driver wants KMS
>> for newer cards.  I mention PCIe because it may make a difference, I
>> also have PCI and AGP versions of various ATI cards.
>>
>
> do I understand this right? are you saying what you say "the driver
> wants" or that newer cards do understand KMS?
>
> for my understandings so far is no point to use xorg-server
> WITH_KMS (for ati) since ati cards are still not working with it

For 4000- or lower series cards, the radeon driver still can use UMS, or 
KMS if available.  For 5000- and higher series cards, KMS is required 
for either 3D acceleration (a few cards) or to work at all.  Later 
versions of the driver may remove UMS support for all cards, which will 
make them useless until FreeBSD has ATI KMS support.

> thanks, so no hidden magic ... so it is your card
>
> Without xorg.conf your card shows up with the same rendering string?

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV730 9498)  TCL

>>> From make.conf:
>> WITH_NEW_XORG=yes
>> WITHOUT_NOUVEAU=yes
>>
>
> If I am not wrong WITHOUT_NOUVEAU was removed?

Yes, just shown because it was still in my make.conf.

>> xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log at
>> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/radeon/
>
> I believe that AIGLX and COMPOSITE is default and no need to enable.

Very likely.  I have not experimented with settings with this latest 
version.

> I also use dualhead and the only config I have actually only two 
> monitor sections to define the position of each. All this usual load 
> and extension settings seem not necessary anymore, unless the card 
> need some special config, as for example radeonhd does not enable 
> XINERAMA, in order to get dualhead with radeonhd it need to be set.

radeonhd is old and has not been updated in a couple of years.  radeon 
from the ATI drivers is the current one.

> I believe EXA is also default

Yes, depending on the card.

> I think DontZap makes no sense anymore because it does not zap anymore
> with either setting ... does it work for you?

Yes, but only because 'setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp' is in 
my .xinitrc.  Default is to have the option enabled but no key set to 
activate it.

> you have no problems running different modes on the monitors? If I do
> that the mousecursor goes crazy after some time, shows up as a
> scribbled block 1x1cm

No, it works fine except that the mouse can be moved into the invisible 
area below the shorter monitor.  Not a bug, really, but smarter pointer 
movement would be nice.

> so last question, kind of useless but do you use kde4? Is openGL
> (DesktopEffects) enabled and running fine?

No, I don't use KDE, it's just too much for me.  xfce4 with compositing 
enabled so windows to go transparent when dragging.